Doncaster Rovers: Pressing matter is a work in progress

Paul Goodwin

Paul Dickov has rejected talk of tactical tinkering and insists Doncaster’s pressing matter is a work in progress.

Richie Wellens spoke this week about “sitting off” teams more after pressing Bournemouth and getting “picked off” by the Cherries.

But Dickov insists Rovers have not changed their style since the 5-0 humiliation and says the matter of when to press and when not to press is still something his squad are coming to terms with on the training ground.

Rovers have gone three games unbeaten, and kept two clean sheets, following the Bournemouth defeat.

“It’s not been a deliberate ploy [to change our style],” said Dickov.

“It’s been a philosophy that we’ve been trying to get into the players since the first day that we came in that we want to press. That’s how I want us to play.

“There have been times this season the players have taken my enthusiasm on board and done it literally but you can’t press all the time for 95 minutes.

“You can’t have two or three pressing and the rest not doing it.

“You have to do it in a structured way and that’s something we’ve been working at.

“It’s been hard to get that consistency with it, purely through the injuries we’ve had for a start and the changes of personnel we’ve had over the course of the season.

“What we saw at Forest was the boys taking what we’ve done on the training ground onto the pitch.

“Having a settled team helps. But when it’s not on to press, especially away from home, you get bodies behind the ball and wait for the right time to do it.

“That’s something we’ve been trying to do right through the season.

“It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to happen in every game, but if you’ve got a basis of doing that properly it gives you a good chance of getting results.”